8 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
20.6 hrs last two weeks / 466.7 hrs on record (433.8 hrs at review time)
Posted: 20 Aug @ 9:36pm
Updated: 5 Oct @ 8:27am

- good graphics
- high level of detail (see screenshots)

The player is offered an immersive setting. The campaign map is beautifully animated and, in addition to forests and deserts, also beautifully depicts differences in altitude such as mountains, gorges and valleys. In the seas you can see dolphins and schools of fish swimming authentically and near the coast you can discover shipwrecks, among other things. The respective battlefield maps were also created with great attention to detail. You get a realistic feeling of ancient Egypt during the 19th Dynasty.

- brutal animation/decapitations
- role-playing game-like ability to equip your generals with items

Whenever a battle is fought, you will see a short animation at the end in which the leading generals fight with each other.
Depending on the type of weapon selected, you will see different execution animations. I haven't seen all of them, but I'm currently at almost 50+ different scenes!

- Dynasty option
- Family tree

The game allows us to marry into an existing dynasty and/or create our own. Using the example of the eponymous Pharaoh Merneptah, we can either marry into his ruling family as Egyptians and thereby be protected by him. Alternatively, we can cause a civil war and, if successful, become pharaoh ourselves and then create our own dynasty that others can then marry into (if we want to and it benefits us enough).
The possibility of a family tree is not new and was implemented here rather superficially. We decide on our potential wife and then have up to four children. We can then turn them into active battlefield generals when they come of age and or get them political positions in the Pharaoh's court (It's easier if we are the Pharaoh^^). Options such as contract killings, blackmail, marriages, etc. are available, but a certain game-defining depth is missing.

- Legitimacy
- Legacies

You can choose between five different types of rule (legitimacy). You can choose from the Pharaoh in Egypt, the Great King in the Hittite Empire, the Wanax in the Aegean, the King of the Universe in Mesopotamia and a kind of vandal path of destruction. Relatively early on in the game you will decide on the most obvious option and then try to climb to the top within this hierarchy.

Depending on which legitimation you subscribe to, you can choose a legacy from two or four options. These give a massive boost in their respective areas (economy, influence, military).
[In the game options you can set that you have all legacies to choose from regardless of culture and can then choose one from them.]

- Battles
- Defense

Everything here has remained very classic; you can have up to 20 units directly and optionally have them reinforced by another 20.
On the campaign map you have the opportunity to build fortresses at predetermined positions and station up to nine units there (these would then support the city garrison in the event of an attack).

- Mod support

I have never used mods in any previous TW part and am currently excited to have tried it out for the first time. Some mods definitely polish up the vanilla version!
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